The New York Times’s lat­est piece on fem­to­cells, small cel­lu­lar base sta­tions that can be self-installed at one’s home or busi­ness, reflects an obnox­ious sense of enti­tle­ment among mobile phone users. The head­line screams it: “Bring­ing You a Sig­nal You’re Already Pay­ing For.”
Today’s cel­lu­lar net­work is out­ra­geously good—so good that we’ve will­ingly sac­ri­ficed clean tower-free sight lines, smooth protrusion-free archi­tec­ture, and low back­ground RF to get there.

Remem­ber when cel­lu­lar phones had speak­ers large enough so you could hear the other per­son on the line? (Back before half-rate audio became the default.)

Remem­ber when cel­lu­lar phones had micro­phones located near the user’s mouth, so the other party could hear you?

Remem­ber when cel­lu­lar phones had anten­nas that were large enough to do their job when the tower is more than 100 feet away?

Most peo­ple would rather buy some­thing shiny and new than con­cern them­selves with these prac­ti­cal details. Which is fine. But then to com­plain about it? Come on.